Northern Forest Droughtnet: A New Framework to Understand Impacts of Precipitation Change on the Northern Forest Ecosystem.

Climate change is likely to affect the Northern Forest of the US region through the increased frequency and severity of drought events. However, understanding of how the Northern Forest, which is adapted to humid temperate conditions, will respond to moderate to extreme droughts is limited. Given the important role that these forests play in regulating water, carbon, nitrogen and other nutrients, enhancing knowledge about impacts of drought is critical to ensuring effective forest management and adaptation to climate change. The “Northern Forest DroughtNet” is a regional network of scientists charged with improving understanding of how northern forests respond to drought. This network is tackling the question of how to expediently perform precipitation change experiments in large stature ecosystems such as forests, and to then demonstrate this design by conducting a field experiment at the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest, NH to assess the impact of drought on the nutrient, water, carbon and nitrogen dynamics of a northern forest ecosystem.